Synthesis
by Rosage
Summary: Contains full game DD spoilers. Aura only started the band to fund her projects, but she soon learns that music can harmonize people-if it doesn't cause discord instead. Aura/Metis


_A/N: Written for the Femslash February Trope Bingo square 'band AU,' though the focus ended up being family issues_

It only took _Aura Blackquill and the Robots _a month to become an indie techno sensation. Aura gave credit to the fact that the hearts Metis bestowed upon the robots breathed life into their techno that none else had replicated, though Simon gave credit to Aura's 'non-male admirers' while fiercely denying that he was, in fact, her biggest groupie (though more in honor of Metis's work than anything else). The robots, for their part, were delighted, telling all of the visitors they showed around about their part in the band before telling them about the space program. The concerts were too loud for Athena, but she listened to a recording that Aura set to a volume Metis specified and graciously told Aura that her lyrics were heartfelt. Metis, of course, didn't let Aura tell Athena that she'd gotten the only copy of a censored edition.

"Do you want to collaborate with us?" Aura asked Simon one day while putting away the part of the lab that she'd revamped into a recording studio. "_Metis Cykes and the Blackquills._ It has a ring to it, don't you think?"

She flashed a smile at Metis, who hummed with amusement. Simon eyed them warily. "A gracious offer, but I must decline," he said with a nod to Metis. "If I became a musician, there'd no longer be anyone at the prosecutor's office who isn't one."

"Ah, yes, I'd forgotten they all realized that none of their talents lie with the law." Aura tied up the cord of a pair of headphones and dared Simon with a look to retort with Metis nearby. He shook his head.

"I'd think a trio comprising a musical scientist, a robotics psychologist, and a psychological prosecutor would refute the idea that people can't be multi-talented, wouldn't you?" He nodded again at Metis, who clapped her hands together.

"Yes, each of us is special!" Metis said. Aura smiled on instinct and begrudgingly gave Simon a silent victory, at least until Metis wasn't in the room.

xxxxxxx

Music wasn't so different from robotics. The princess always complained when she couldn't hear real emotion behind singers' voices, but Aura didn't think feelings were so necessary. There was a logic to the rhythm, to hitting that combination of chords that the listener would whistle in the shower without thinking. Cracking the puzzle relaxed Aura after a day of ranting about supervisors cutting her budget because her robots 'weren't as necessary' as other projects.

Of course, that's why she'd started this whole thing—as a fundraiser—and no matter how quickly Mr. Cosmos had latched on to claiming credit for his institute's pioneering into new musical territory, the space center couldn't take any of the profits. With luck, they'd make enough for the parts Aura wanted within the year.

That was, until Metis came to Aura with a worn face and asked with reservation for a cut of the profits. Without her, the music wouldn't be possible, so Aura agreed, though she would have anyway.

"What are you using it for?" she asked as she took out her account book. Metis's thinly drawn mouth answered.

"Take what you need," Aura said, turning away before Metis could see unfair irritation creasing the skin between her eyes.

xxxxxxx

Aura liked playing concerts, even if they weren't in her usual wheelhouse. Though she only had a person or three who she preferred to robots, there was an energy to performance that was unlike that which she got when she flipped a switch, a beat that made her glad for once to be out of the lab.

One evening after changing from her concert outfit—a silver dress, sleek and sleeveless, that light bounced off like metal when she shimmied—Aura saw Metis kneeling with the princess on the floor, listening to Ponco play a recording. Both pairs of eyes held a shine, but while Athena stared raptly at Ponco, Metis had eyes only for Athena.

Aura's grip on her wrench tightened involuntarily. For a moment, she wanted to intervene and tell them the full experience couldn't be had at that volume, just to eclipse the light. She left before her dark mood could cast a shadow on them.

For several long moments, Aura lay in her bedroll and stewed. She ranted at Athena for being the black hole where all of Metis's attention went to die. She ranted at Metis for taking something that was all Aura's doing and making it about Athena (_again_). She ranted, ultimately, at herself, for being so petty, for blaming an eleven year old for her own feelings, for lying alone in a dark room while her family enjoyed something she made.

Her family. That was the problem. They weren't _her _family, not like Simon. For a while, Aura had thought that she and Metis and the robots could be a family—but there was Athena, existing as something that was more important, that was _not Aura's, _and therein created the divide.

As she'd been waiting for it, she didn't need Athena's ears to hear Metis enter, though in consideration of Athena Metis had trained herself to move as quietly as a ghost. Metis knelt beside her and played with the hair mussed across their pillow. Aura waited for her to say something, but she didn't.

Of course they couldn't actually talk about it. Because Metis, bless her, had never been good at applying her genius as psychologist to her personal life, even with the princess, and unlike Athena—who hid from Aura—she couldn't hear the darkness in Metis's heart. Aura of course, always inwardly desperate for Metis's approval, wouldn't have admitted it in an eon.

Aura lay still, listening to Metis's breathing. Their bedroom was the only place where it didn't blend with mechanical sounds. The synthesis held its own sort of music, so she always forgot how much the sound on its own grounded her to humanity.

"Why do you always leave when I'm with Athena?"

The question startled Aura, who hadn't even known Metis knew she was awake. In an instant she knew she shouldn't have underestimated Metis's observational skills. "Don't want to intrude," she mumbled, feeling thoroughly pathetic.

"You wouldn't be intruding," Metis said. The obvious confusion in her voice made Aura clench her jaw.

"Well, you know, she doesn't get to see you very often."

"She sees you even less."

"That's not the _same_." The sheet fell around Aura's waist as she sat up. "I'm not her mother."

Metis's stricken face made Aura immediately regret the words. "I—I had thought…" Metis's mouth hung up for only a second before clamping shut, her expression smoothing as it did when she was maintaining complete personal control. Aura could have hurt herself for initiating it.

She reached for Metis's elbow. "Metis, I didn't mean—"

Metis stood. "I think I am sleeping in the lab," she said. She left as quietly as she'd entered.

xxxxxxx

Aura's mind supplied a dozen horrible break-up scenarios (the worst of which—and most likely—being Metis simply packing up and leaving without a word) before she tiptoed out to the lab. Metis had not unpacked the bedroll they kept there for all-nighters and sat instead at Aura's makeshift recording studio wearing a pair of headphones. The fact that she wasn't, as Aura would have expected, instead taking advantage of the opportunity to work on her research for Athena gave Aura a small spark of joy that she immediately doused.

Knowing how easily startled Metis was, Aura stepped quietly toward her and waited before clicking the music off. It took Metis several blinks before her shoulders jerked at the sight of Aura. She removed the headphones.

"I was analyzing your music," she said, her finger scratching at the corner of a button. "Those lines in the chorus of _Nebula_—the ones about _the pride and joy lighting my solar system—_were those not about her?"

Aura looked to the side. "Those were for you," she said.

She closed her eyes, not wanting to see Metis's reaction. The sound of Metis's scratching joined the whir of the station where their robots recharged. "And the bridge of _My Lunar Eclipse,_" she continued as if Aura had said nothing, "_A shadow keeps hiding my moon from me_…"

"That one was about her. She…she doesn't like me much, you know. Always darts away before I can talk to her."

"That's what she said about you." Aura winced. "She said you're always turning the other way when she approaches."

Inwardly, Aura breathed a sigh of relief. So Athena kept her darkness secret. She'd have to reward her with some of the candy Metis didn't like her eating.

"I always feel like I'm going to scare her."

"She loves you, you know," Metis said. Aura's heart thumped oddly. That was a thought she couldn't wrap her mind around. "She raved about your music. It made her so happy. I haven't seen her happy like that in forever, except when Simon or little Juniper visit."

Amidst Aura's pleasure, it took her a moment to catch the way the glow of the screen reflected off Metis's downcast eyes. The implication hit her at once.

"You do so much for her, Metis."

"All for naught," Metis said. She stared at Aura's synthesizer. "I can't make her smile."

Aura was at a loss. Comfort was not an aspect of relationships she excelled at. She rubbed her head, thinking it through logically. There had to be _something _Metis did that Athena appreciated—and if not, Aura was inclined to say it wasn't Metis's fault, though that wouldn't help.

"Do you think this music would have been possible if not for your work on Ponco and Clonco? The princess can tell when music doesn't have heart, you know. I couldn't have supplied that on my own."

After a pause, Metis's hand crept up to slip into Aura's. Aura squeezed it, taking a moment to admire Metis's lightly illuminated silhouette.

"About what I said earlier…I'd love to be another queen for the princess," Aura said. "I really would. I just didn't know how big the throne room was in this castle."

Metis rubbed a thumb along Aura's fingers. "Too big for me to manage alone, certainly." Aura responded by bringing Metis's hand to her lips.

xxxxxxx

Much to Simon's chagrin, Aura's musical debut was soon followed by her second band, _Metis Cykes and the Blackquills._ It was more popular among indie techno fans than the first, due in large part to the endorsement of one of Simon's coworkers, though Metis liked to think that the cover of their first album, _Space Queens, _which featured Athena with little Taka, played a role.


End file.
